Sen. Brown proposal boosts job hubs

WASHINGTON – After a protracted and painful slump, American manufacturing is starting to show new signs of life.

The gains have been small and slow, though, with the Buckeye State adding back only a fraction of the manufacturing jobs lost amid the Great Recession. Now, lawmakers are looking for new ways to rev up this part of the economy.

One proposal – sponsored by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio – is gaining traction in the Senate. It would provide funding for manufacturing "hubs" – public-private partnerships involving universities, businesses and federal agencies – designed to spur the development and production of next-generation manufacturing products.

President Barack Obama launched the initiative in 2012, awarding a $30 million grant to the first hub – in Youngstown – to pioneer advances in 3D printing. Known as America Makes, the Youngstown hub has brought together businesses, universities and nonprofits with the aim of bridging the gap between academic research and commercialization of new products in 3D printing.

Brown's bill would establish a $600 million fund from which the Commerce Department would award grants to new manufacturing hubs. The measure doesn't call for a specific number of hubs or say what kinds of products they should develop. But it aims to create a network of regional manufacturing centers around the country.

"Ohio is doing very well with this idea" and could benefit from its expansion, Brown said.

How much his bill would do to bolster the manufacturing industry or to create new jobs is up for debate. Some detractors say it doesn't make sense for the federal government to favor manufacturing over other segments of the economy. Supporters say the measure is vital to restoring American competitiveness in manufacturing after more than a decade of watching good-paying factory jobs shift overseas to China and other low-wage countries.

The bill, which is scheduled for committee action later this month and could come up for a vote in the full Senate soon after, has bipartisan support. The main co-sponsor is Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., a member of the Senate's GOP leadership.

Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a Washington-based industry advocacy group, said the fact that a conservative Republican and populist Democrat have joined forces on this proposal illustrates "the crossover appeal of this issue."

Obama also has been a vocal advocate of the idea, announcing three additional hubs – in Raleigh, N.C., Chicago and Detroit – since the one in Youngstown. The president has said he's hoping to launch more later this year.

Brown said Congress needs to pass his legislation to provide funding for additional sites and to make sure the initiative can survive and expand after Obama's term ends. With congressional authorization, "this idea can go forward" regardless of who is president, he said.

Looking for a game changer amid slow Ohio jobs recovery

Paul said the bill is a good starting point for a long-overdue debate on U.S. manufacturing policy. He noted that, for 110 years, America was the world's largest manufacturer, a title the U.S. has now ceded to China. The Blunt-Brown bill is a critical part, he said, of a broader legislative effort to restore American manufacturing to its once-dominant state.

"In and of itself, it's not going to be a game changer," Paul said, "but we will not have a game changer without it."

Ohio and other states could use a game changer as they struggle to recover from the recession. The Buckeye State lost about 400,000 manufacturing jobs from December 2000 to December 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since the current recovery began in 2010, the industry has started to rebound in Ohio, with the state adding more than 48,000 manufacturing jobs through October 2013, according to BLS figures.

Some economists say the Blunt-Brown bill is not the best solution to the economy's current ills. The impact would be "minimal," said Paul H. Rubin, an economics professor at Emory University. "The government just isn't good at deciding what kinds of things the economy should do."

Others have suggested that a decline in manufacturing employment is inevitable in an era of increased automation. Technology is accelerating productivity to the point where even China has seen manufacturing jobs shrink.

Paul, of the manufacturing alliance, conceded there's a perception that manufacturing is "yesterday, not tomorrow." But that's dead wrong, he said.

"You can't have a healthy overall economy without manufacturing," Paul said, adding that the industry accounts for 60 percent of American exports and that its workers earn on average 38 percent more than others employed in the private sector.

"Ask any mayor today if they'd rather have a factory, a hospital or a Wal-Mart," and there's little doubt the factory would be chosen, Paul said. "If they get a factory, they may get a Wal-Mart, but it doesn't work the other way around." ⬛

Nicole Gaudiano of Gannett's Washington Bureau contributed to this story.

Correction: March 22.

An earlier version of this article inaccurately described a proposal as being co-sponsored by Sen. Brown. The proposal is sponsored by Brown.